Filmmaker Steven Spielberg said he regrets editing guns out of his 1982 classic "ET" for its 20th anniversary release.
The film follows the story of a young boy who befriends an extraterrestrial left behind on earth while desperately trying to go home. In one scene, officers are chasing young children while carrying firearms, which Spielberg edited out and replaced with walkie-talkies for the 2002 release.
"That was a mistake," Spielberg said during a master class at the Time 100 Summit, according to the Independent. "I never should have done that. 'ET' is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.
"I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don't recommend anyone do that," Spielberg continued, adding that movies provided snapshots of the time period they were made.
"All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there. So I really regret having that out there," he said.
Spielberg also weighed in on the recent censorship of authors' books, including those of British author Roald Dahl.
"For me, it is sacrosanct. It's our history, it's our cultural heritage. I do not believe in censorship in that way," Spielberg said.
Last week, Spielberg offered a glimpse into where he drew inspiration for "ET," saying his parents' 1966 divorce made him question the final scene of his 1977 UFO film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which led to him thinking up the storyline to "ET."
“What if that little creature never went back to the ship?” he told the audience at the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, according to the Independent. "What if the creature was part of a foreign-exchange program? What if I turn my story about divorce into a story about children, a family, trying to fill the great need and creating such responsibility?"
Spielberg continued: "A divorce creates great responsibility, especially if you have siblings; we all take care of each other. What if Elliott, or the kid — I hadn't dreamt up his name yet — needed to, for the first time in his life, become responsible for a life form to fill the gap in his heart?
"I had been working on an actual literal script about my parents' separation and divorce, and I had been working on ideas about that and what it did to my sisters and myself."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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